As their London-based sister company prepares to end the run of its current rich but relentlessly misery-guts mixed bill, Birmingham Royal Ballet arrives in the capital with an altogether more spiritually varied celebration of its heritage. And what spirit they show.

As ever, one doesn’t envy the cast of Symphonic Variations. For one thing, they can’t fail to know that this 1946 masterpiece was a milestone in both the history of British ballet and in the art form full-stop, and that it was Frederick Ashton’s signature work. For another, it has no characters or plot, and (despite enduringly gorgeous designs by Sophie Fedorovitch) no props, and, throughout its subtly but exceptionally challenging 20 minutes, none of its six dancers ever leaves the stage. There is, then, nowhere to hide.

This pressure does show a little here on the three BRB girls, chiefly in a certain stiffness to their port de bras. But, even so, the impression is a fine one. All three – with the fleet Natasha Oughtred at their centre – pour their hearts into the piece, never fudging Ashton’s exquisitely original and detailed choreography, and generally embracing its (and the César Franck score’s) serene lyricism.

They are very well served by the three boys. Partnering Oughtred, another César – Morales – is an especially noble statue in repose, and makes particularly muscular work of the difficult enchainements of jumps – although, as with the girls, his two companions more than hold their own too. A potent sense of physical and stylistic cohesion between the six, coupled with lovely playing from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and Jonathan Higgins at the piano, contribute to a rendering that allows Ashton’s love of love, of mysticism, of the passing of the English seasons, and of dance itself to shine through. He’d have told the girls to relax a little, I think, but he would have been proud nonetheless.

If BRB’s Symphonic is merely very good, its Gilbert and Sullivan-esque Pineapple Poll – which closes the just slightly foolishly named bill – is pitch-perfect. All lusty sailors and swooning sweethearts, John Cranko’s romp (created for Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, as BRB was then, in 1951) is precisely the sort of lively tale that you expect them to embrace, and embrace it they do.

Playing the titular, enfatuated Poll, pretty Carol-Anne Millar demonstrates musicality and ballon in spades, and, like the entire cast, combines technical rigour, an anything-goes energy and a full grasp of the piece’s lighthearted wit. But it is Robert Parker, as the mishievous sea-hunk Captain Belaye, who saunters away with the show.

With impish and impeccable comic timing, and an aerial agility that entirely belies his 35 years, he simultaneously makes you lament his imminent departure from the company – to direct its feed school, Elmhurst – and applaud his decision to quit while he is so far ahead. Here’s hoping, though, that he returns one day to dance Widow Simone in another Ashton jewel, La Fille mal gardée (also in BRB’s rep this season). On this evidence, he’d be fantastic.

If Symphonic and Poll still look as fresh as spring daisies, Checkmate, created by the Royal Ballet’s founder Ninette de Valois in 1937, is more of an elegantly pressed flower these days. This modernist struggle between love and death – a sort of hyper-stylised film noir played out between chess pieces – now has only a fraction of the impact that it must have had 75-odd years ago, and it plods at times. And, although Victoria Marr here has the right ice-maiden aura here as the pivotal, murderous Black Queen, she lacks the long, stiletto-like limbs that the piece needs. Indeed, the company as a whole doesn’t quite meet its stark, stentorian demands.

Even so, Arthur Bliss’s score and E McKnight Kauffer’s designs are still striking, de Valois’s keen intelligence is everywhere in its craftsmanlike construction, and BRB do give it a gutsy go. A nod, too, to Jenna Roberts’s graceful Red Queen, unusually touching in her dealings with her rickety husband, and to the fine ensemble work from the four knights.

I’d have chosen another work to start the evening, then, but it’s still a highly recommendable bill overall. Do catch it if you can.

The "ladies" of Birmingham Royal Ballet dragged themselves up on deck at Sadler’s Wells last week in a first-rate revival of Pineapple Poll, John Cranko’s 1951 Gilbertian farce about an irresistible sea captain.

You couldn’t exactly call "Autumn Glory", David Bintley’s touring triple bill, cutting-edge (all three ballets would be eligible for a bus pass), but it was a strongly danced celebration of pre- and post-war British choreography, offering a rich variety of music, design and mood.

We opened with Ninette de Valois’s Checkmate. Three years with Diaghilev taught De Valois how to fuse music, design and dance into great theatre – a gift shared by Frederick Ashton. In Symphonic Variations, his sublime Elysian geometry is a perfect match for César Franck’s score and for the mazy mysteries of Sophie Fedorovitch’s backdrop.

And Pineapple for pudding! Elisha Willis was fleet and nimble as the lovelorn Poll, and the unattainable Captain Belaye was dashingly danced by César Morales, who has taken to the hornpipe like a native.